


Enough squids for a lifetime

by Ayumu (396Ayumu), einsKai, ShionsTear



Category: IDOLiSH7 (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Collaboration, Dinosaurs, Found Family Dynamics, Gen, Humor, Isekai, Kaiju, Parallel World Versions Of Characters, Super Sentai, ToraMina, yukimomo - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:54:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28301184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/396Ayumu/pseuds/Ayumu, https://archiveofourown.org/users/einsKai/pseuds/einsKai, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShionsTear/pseuds/ShionsTear
Summary: tfw you're fighting kaijuu with your friends and get isekaied and suddenly th— <コ:彡 <コ:彡 <コ:彡 <コ:彡 <コ:彡 <コ:彡 <コ:彡 <コ:彡 <コ:彡 <コ:彡 <コ:彡 <コ:彡 <コ:彡 <コ:彡 <コ:彡 <コ:彡
Relationships: Midou Torao & Natsume Minami & Nikaidou Yamato & Yaotome Gaku & Yuki, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Kudos: 7





	Enough squids for a lifetime

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas!
> 
> [Last year](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21963916) we created a story that actually made sense! This year it's probably even better since we planned it out from the start, but the main characters and tags were chosen more or less randomly and this is what happened.
> 
> Last year's twist stayed though: Ayumu's algorithm that randomly generated five words, of which two were chosen by the two that weren't writing the part. So some chaos might remain here and there, but otherwise this one's the most coherent yet. And the longest one!
> 
> We hope you have fun reading!
> 
> Ayumu, Kai, and Shion

“Red!”

A sharp pain spread through Torao’s back as he crashed into the building behind him. He had underestimated the kaijuu and was now paying for it. He lifted his eyes in time to see Gaku slamming his hammer on the kaijuu and the concrete cracking under it.

“My, Red, are we underestimating kaijuus again?”

Yuki was standing nearby and adjusted his antler helmet before firing a beam that passed dangerously near a hopping figure in a pink tight suit. Yamato hopped higher in fright and yelled.

“White! Aim at the kaijuu! Not at me!”

“Ah, but Pink is so easy to see…” 

“Kaijuus are the size of damn _trees_!”, Yamato yelled as he drop kicked the kaijuu’s shoulder.

“Sycamore trees, to be exact”, Yuki corrected him as he blasted the shoulder Yamato had been on two seconds ago. 

Minami took advantage of the situation and tripped the already unsteady kaijuu with his whip. The ground trembled.

“ _I can’t let them do all the work_ ”, thought Torao, and struggled to stand up as the battle went on. 

Kaijuu were monsters that appeared out of nowhere and were at least as tall as a two-storey building. They usually had sharp claws or teeth or some other way of doing damage but had no other defining characteristics. Some walked on six legs, some had tails, and some had spikes on their heads and along their backs. 

And to fight against the kaijuu, humanity had them, the Astro Rangers. As their leader, Astro Red could not stay down.

Torao rushed the kaijuu and slashed its neck with his metal claws. The kaijuu exploded into silvery-grey particles that vanished into thin air. 

“Fufu, that went nicely. No buildings collapsed this time”, said Minami as he approached Torao. “But someone really needs to stop rushing in alone.”

“Ah… Yeah, my bad, Black”, Torao said. 

“Yeah, Red, I get that you want to be cool, but you should do it like me instead of getting hurt every two days”, Gaku lifted his hammer and rested the handle on his shoulder.

“You did break the sidewalk though, so you’re on logbook duty today too”, Yamato hopped over.

“It’s nice to have someone volunteering to do the desk work every day”, Yuki said.

Once the Astro Rangers gathered together, a flash of light enveloped them and their hero suits disappeared, leaving them in casual clothes.

“Good work, team”, Torao said and nodded to the others. “Now where did I leave my bike?”

“If you’re lucky it didn’t crash into a wall”, Yamato adjusted his glasses. “Again.”

“Hey, last time that only happened because I was being chased by a kaijuu and had no time to hit the brakes”, he crossed his arms.

“You jumping off the bike looked cool though”, Gaku admitted.

“Torao-san, it’s alright. I’ve spotted it during our fight earlier and it’s still in one piece”, Minami smiled.

“Nice. Let’s head back home then”, Torao said.

“Very well.”

“Alright, see y’all”, he waved with his arm as he and Minami walked towards his bike to head to their apartment.

“Cool, I’ll go home and take a nap then”, Yamato yawned.

“Don’t you wanna go have a drink?”, Gaku asked.

“Nah”, he shook his head. “Also you’re on logbook duty, did you already forget? So get that over with first before doing anything else.”

“Fine.”

“He’s right, Gakkyun”, Yuki added. “And I can’t join you tonight either.”

“Why not?”

“There’s a sale at my favourite market and I wanna take the opportunity to buy some ingredients for stuffings.”

“Stuffings!?”

“Yes”, Yuki nodded. “For a turkey.”

“Wait, weren’t you vegetarian?”

“I am.”

“And you’re cooking a turkey?”

“Oh, the turkey isn’t for me, silly”, Yuki chuckled.

“Huh!?”, Gaku turned to Yamato but that one only shrugged.

“Either way, I’ll be off. Have fun with the logbook”, he said, turned around and started walking away.

“Same, bye”, Yamato showed him some finger guns before leaving in Yuki’s opposite direction.

“Hah…”, he sighed. “Alright, time for the logbook then.”

“Ahh, nothing beats a cosy couch after a day of work”, Torao stretched his arms and sighed happily.

“Indeed”, Minami nodded as he drank from his cup of freshly brewed tea. The two had started living together some months after becoming a couple and they’d been enjoying every day since then. Sure, sudden kaijuu attacks might’ve prematurely forced them to end dates and the like, but that was the price that local heroes had to pay.

“I gotta head to our hideout tomorrow though”, he explained. “Have to pick up some files.”

“While you’re there, please look over Gaku-san’s logbook entry”, Minami said.

“Can do”, he nodded.

“Thank you.”

“So…”, Torao looked at Minami. “Wanna take a nice bath?”

“My, that’s—”

But before he could reply to Torao’s invitation, both of their Astro Rings started flashing as they started beeping; the signal that a kaijuu had appeared.

“Oh you’ve got to be kidding me!”, Torao exclaimed and sighed.

“And just when we were getting comfortable as well”, Minami said. “Well, Torao-san?”

“What? We gotta go.”

“Truly. But are you not going to say it?”

“It?”, Torao wondered what Minami could say while he hastily put on shoes again. “Ah!”

“In the beginning you were so eager to say it all the time.”

“True. Astro Rangers! Head out!”

“Though only Red and Black are here at the moment.”

“Doesn’t matter, Black. Let’s go!”

Their beeping rings led them towards the outskirts of the city, an industrial district. The abandoned factory building they stood before looked like it should’ve been demolished years ago. Most windows had been smashed and the walls were full of more or less artistic graffiti. The only building that was still recognisable as what it had been was the gigantic storehouse off to the border of the site. 

A strange light of a colour that Torao found hard to describe shone from the few high windows of the building. 

“This is where we go. Towards that light.”

“Huh”, Yamato, who had just arrived as well said. “Seems like they should’ve severed the ties to this company earlier.”

“Yamato-kun, that doesn’t make sense”, Yuki said. “This factory has been abandoned for years.”

“And we don’t even have an audience, so smart lines won’t do shit”, Gaku panted. He had apparently come running. “Man, I hate paperwork.”

“Stop venting. You destroy public property, you get the paperwork”, Yamato rolled his eyes. “So, we doing this or what?”

“Yes!”, Torao posed. “Bringing justice upon evil with the slash of a tiger’s claw! I’m Astro Red!”

Minami followed his example, so did Yuki, and then Gaku. 

“Bringing justice upon evil with the slither of a whip! I’m Astro Black!”

“Bringing justice upon evil with a dragon’s mysterious power! I’m Astro White!”

“Bringing justice upon evil with an oxen’s pummel! I’m Astro Blue!”

“Didn’t you _just_ say that lines don’t make sense because we don’t have an audience?”, Yamato mumbled, but finally posed as well. “Bringing justice upon evil with a bunny’s hop! I’m Astro Pink, pyon!”

“Astro Rangers! Head out!”, Torao called.

“Somehow I feel like you already said this for this sortie before just now. Do we have to get jealous of another group of Astro Rangers?”, White said cryptically, but then followed suit.

They burst through the door of the storage hall and were faced with…

“What is this deviltry?”, White’s mouth hung open.

“Is that even a kaijuu?”

“What else is it gonna be, Blue?”, Pink said. “Let’s beat its ass and go home already, pyon.”

“Yeah”, Torao agreed. “Let’s find out its weaknesses and then attack!”

They swarmed out, surrounding the… strangely glowing, vaguely orbicular object/creature/???.

“It doesn’t seem hostile”, Blue reported.

“But the rings alarmed us”, Black said.

“It also doesn’t look like a kaijuu, pyon.”

“My, Pink-kun, we have not even discovered a pattern with the looks of the previous kaijuu we fought. How are you going to say that this isn’t one?”

It was true. The orb-thing wasn’t doing anything. Just… glowing. Was that a threat?

“Do we have any data on the threat level of this?”, Torao asked.

“Nothing”, Blue replied. “Everything says ‘unknown’.”

“Damn”, was all Torao could come up with.

Silence. Only an otherworldly noise from the orb-thing sounded through the hall. If Torao listened closely, it sounded like when one sped up a movie really fast, but also like. Thirty movies at once. Overlapping, talking over each other. Multiple storylines and worlds intertwining without acknowledging each other.

What _was_ this thing?

“Maybe we should just try to hit it”, he said then.

“I mean”, Blue said. “I don’t have a better plan of action.”

“Excuse me?”, Pink mumbled. “How about ‘doing nothing’?”

“That’s not an action.”

“True.”

“Also”, White smiled. “If we do nothing the rings will beep through the entire night. You won’t be able to get a nick of sleep, Pink-kun, and we all know how you get when that happens.”

“Is today bullying Pink day?”, Black asked.

“Enough”, Torao interrupted. “I’m hitting it.”

“Be careful.”

“I’m _always_ careful.”

“…yeah, sure”, all other Astro Rangers said in synch.

“Hey!”, he complained but then caught himself.

He balled his fist, his claws shining in the strange light the orb-thing emitted.

And then he punched it.

“Torao-sa—”

Torao was pulled into a maelstrom of colours and light. The noise he had heard earlier was suddenly loud, filled his ears and his mind, stronger and stronger, until it was just screaming, and he wanted to press his hands to his ears. Only then he noticed that he didn’t really have hands, or ears, or any body parts anymore. He was just a bubble of consciousness, floating inside the orb-thing. He couldn’t resist the pull, nor steer against it. But he had a direction, an apparent goal. Where was it taking him?

Finally, an especially strong pull hit Torao, and he lost the ability to sense anything. The screaming also stopped, and the wild colours were no more.

If he had had eyes at the moment, he would have closed them.

Just as he had thought that he felt his body again. His eyes _were_ closed, and he slowly opened them.

He was standing on a roof. The evening sun flooded a familiar city in a fiery light.

This was his home city, where he was a hero with his friends.

Or was it…?

Something seemed off. There were some buildings that Torao didn’t recognise. Another one was supposed to undergo repairs at the moment (courtesy of last week’s kaijuu). Was this… the future? Had the orb-thing sent him into the future? How far? Were the other Astro Rangers alright without him?

Suddenly Torao noticed something. He raised his hand that had desperately clung to an array of small, hard, round objects.

He knew what he would find before he opened his hand, but he still audibly gasped.

Inside of his palm sat five rings. Red, Black, White, Blue, and Pink. 

Torao put the red ring on: It was indeed the Red Astro Ring. He kept the rest in his chest pocket. What would the other Astro Rangers do if they met a kaijuu now? How would they fight?

To go back as soon as possible, he needed information. Torao took out his smartphone and checked the date. It hadn’t changed, neither the day nor the year. He had internet connection too, so the clock had to be synched. Or did the future mess with his phone?

Torao tried texting the Astro Rangers, but even if the messages were sent nobody was receiving them. Calls were not connecting either. Seriously, where was this?

Whatever. Idleness would not bring him anywhere, so Torao decided to visit his apartment and the Astro Rangers’ hideout. Maybe he would find something… or someone.

Torao went to the ground level from the inside of the building where he appeared. It was an office building, so he double checked the date in some newspapers and magazines. His phone was right. So, this was not the future. Was this… a parallel world?

Torao hurried home through the familiar yet unfamiliar streets. Yuki’s vegetarian restaurant of choice that had to close due to kaijuu attacks was still open here, but Minami’s favourite book café was nowhere to be seen. There was, however, a myriad of specialist shops ranging from “office chair wheel repairer” to “perfect hues for your kitchen floor”. What was up with that? Where were his partner, friends, and comrades? And why couldn’t he get in contact with any of them? Everything felt _off_ and tension started building in his shoulders; he didn’t like that feeling.

Torao took a right and then a left and was then standing in front of Minami’s and his apartment building. Third floor, door six. He took out his key, fit it in the lock and tried turning… but it didn’t. He double checked. Door six, floor three. Apparently not his home anymore. 

Torao put the key back in his pocket and rushed down the stairs. The sun had set completely, and the streetlights were on, giving the city the familiar orange tone of night-time. Torao realised he had no bike here so he would have to walk to the hideout. Or take the bus. Were the bus lines the same? Not that it mattered, since he had been using the bike for so long, he did not know which bus was which anymore. 

Thankfully, he had internet connection and money that, judging from the prices on the shops, was still usable. Two bus transfers later, he was where what should’ve been the Astro Rangers’ hideout. It was now a café.

He stopped in front of one of the windows and peeked inside. The café was bustling with people and definitely not a secret hideout for the local hero group. It seemed to be some kind of themed café as perches could be seen all over the walls. On some of those he discovered birds. Was it like a cat café but for bird enthusiasts? Torao put his hands to his head.

“What is happening…”, he asked himself. “Am I dreaming? This gotta be a dream or something, right?”

After pinching himself several times and the only result being him not waking up and just getting red marks on his forearm, he decided to take a deep breath and think. Calling the others again wouldn’t change the fact that he couldn’t reach them that way, so was there any other method of doing so?

“...social media”, he whispered to himself. He had sat down on a bench in front of the café and pulled out his phone. He clicked on the bird-icon app and opened twitter to search for the others’ accounts.

“Damn it!”, he exclaimed as his search showed zero results. “...wait a sec, where’s _my_ account?”, he asked in confusion. For some reason, he could open the app but there was no account linked to it. His bewilderment grew with every second and anxiety was slowly sneaking up as well.

Torao tried to recollect his thoughts once more. He and the Astro Rangers had discovered that weird looking kaijuu - though he wasn’t even sure anymore if it really had been one - and he wanted to hit it but was blinded by some bright light. After that, everything seemed hazy to him and the next memory he had was about waking up on that roof.

“Fuck!”, he yelled as he put his phone away. He remembered the other Astro Rings in his chest pocket and took them out. They were there, in his hand, that was for sure. His own red ring on his finger as always. Torao secured them in the pocket again, closed his eyes and let his head fall back.

It was getting late and he didn’t know what to do. He was in a familiar yet unfamiliar city, unable to contact any of the people he knew. Where would he even spend the night? At a hotel? At an internet café? And then what? What would he do the next day? The more Torao thought about it the more uneasy he felt. He just wanted one hint, _anything_ that could help him out.

“Phew, colder than I expected”, a voice said. A voice that Torao knew all too well. His eyes quickly opened and he saw a familiar face exiting the café. All his worries seemed to poof away in an instant and he felt relaxed again. He suddenly jumped up from the bench and turned around.

“Gaku!”, he yelled at the man he recognized. “Where were you, why didn’t you answer my call? What’s even going on here!? I just—”

“Uhm…”, the other replied. “Do I know you?”

“...huh?”

“Wait, why do you know my name?”

“What do you mean? Why shouldn’t I know your name, we’ve been friends forever.”

“Are you sure?”

“Huh!?”, Torao exclaimed. He had finally found a familiar face and now this.

“Maybe you’re mistaking me for someone else?”

“What? No!”, he shook his head. “You’re Yaotome Gaku, I’d recognize that mug of yours anywhere.”

“Are you a stalker?”

“No!”, Torao sighed. “...wait are you joking with me? Is this some sort of elaborate prank? A hidden camera?”

“Huh?”

“Where are Yuki and Minami? This was Yamato’s idea, wasn’t it? That damn bastard with spectacles. I’m gonna—”

“I’m really sorry, but I think you’ve got the wrong person…”, Gaku(?) answered. “But I’ve never heard of those people you just mentioned.”

“...h-huh…?”

“Well, I don’t know you, but apparently I have a doppelganger somewhere. Someone must have face-stealing magic and used it on me to catfish you or something. I mean, I get it, but I’m not interested.”

“ _Magic_?”

“Yeah, magic. The thing that’s in everyone here. Do I have to give you that elementary school speech we had to recite every day? ‘Magic is everything in this world’—”

Torao felt his fist tighten. What the hell was this? Was Gaku ( _this_ Gaku???) not the same one as the Blue he knew? What was this talk about magic? He was _so_ confused.

“I don’t know anything about magic”, Torao decided to say slowly. “I just came here through a portal of some sort. Where I come from, I’m a hero together with you and some other people. I don’t have magic, and I want to go back. My friends are probably in danger.”

Gaku(?) looked at him for a moment and then decided to bare his teeth at him in a resemblance of fake laughter. “Haha very funny dude. Is this a trick to drag me into your pyramid scheme or something? I don’t need crippling debt in my life, I’m good, thank you.”

“Excuse me!? Being an Astro Ranger is not a pyramid scheme!”

“Astro Ranger?”, now Gaku(?) was just making fun of him.

“Yes! Astro Ranger! You’re Astro Blue and I’m Astro Red! We’re supposed to quarrel but ultimately find solutions. Now just believe me already, what else am I supposed to say?”

Gaku(?) sighed. “Fine. Okay, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.”

Before Torao could rejoice, Gaku(?)’s next little word destroyed all of that again.

Like an expert bowman with the three little letters as his arrow, Gaku(?) shot through the hope in Torao’s heart, hitting it perfectly and shattering it, until only a tiny fragment remained.

“But”, Gaku(?) said and Torao deflated. “I’m gonna have to test you.”

“Test? Test on what?”

“Well, isn’t that obvious?”, Gaku(?) grinned. It wasn’t a grin that Torao liked.

“Why did you take me to a laundrette?”, Torao asked about five minutes later.

“Excuse you, that’s _my_ laundrette”, laundry-Gaku said. “Also it’s not any laundrette, I use my magic here.”

Torao wondered if that was why there had been so many ultra-specific shops earlier.

“What’s your magic?”

“Easy”, laundry-Gaku said. “I just have to touch bottles of normal detergent and it immediately becomes the best fabric softener in the world. Nowhere else can you get laundry done as smooth _and_ clean as here.”

Torao did his best not to laugh. That sounded _so_ useless. And so different from his Gaku who just smashed stuff with his big ass hammer.

But if it made this Gaku a living…

“So, what did you want to test me on?”

“It has nothing to do with laundry. I have this machine from my grandpa in my basement. It can test your kind of magic. I just wanna know what magic you have, because that’ll tell me if you’re lying or not.”

Obviously, he was still thinking that Torao had been lying. Was lying. Whatever.

Gaku led him down the basement of the laundrette, where something that looked like a really large washing machine was standing.

“I’m not getting in the washing machine”, Torao said.

“That’s not a washing machine”, laundry-Gaku said. “It’s a magic detection device.”

“…I still don’t really want to.”

“The magic detection device doesn’t care about your feelings.”

“I wish _you_ did though.”

“I don’t know you, so I have minimal concern for you. As a fellow human I respect you, but you’re the one who spouted stuff about Star Rangers or whatever.”

“ _Astro_ Rangers.”

“Yeah yeah”, laundry-Gaku said. “Now get in the magic detection washing machine.”

“You said it wasn’t a washing machine!”

“It’s not going to wash you”, laundry-Gaku shrugged.

“I can’t with you.”

This was kind of refreshing. Almost like normal Gaku. Just less personal. Torao was glad.

He got in the washing machine. It was large enough for him to sit without bumping his head. As soon as he had stopped moving a bunch of lights lit up and flooded the machine with an even light. He couldn’t look outside anymore because the glass was reflecting his own image back at him. He looked terrible. Seriously terrible. To be honest, if he had walked up to himself in the street, he wouldn’t have trusted himself either. He couldn’t blame laundry-Gaku.

The lights turned off and the door opened.

“See? No washing involved”, laundry-Gaku said.

“So, what does my result say?”

“What was your name again?”

“Midou Torao.”

“Hmm…”, laundry-Gaku seemed to tap on something. While that was going on Torao crawled out of the magic detection washing machine.

“I searched for you on the net and found a website for a squid whisperer. It seems to be doing pretty well too, though there haven’t been any updates for over a month.”

“ _Squid whisperer_?”, Torao repeated. He didn’t even know what to say.

“Yeah, seems to be this world’s you.”

“This worl—", he gasped. “So you believe me?!”

“The machine couldn’t detect you at all”, laundry-Gaku shrugged. “It didn’t even recognise you as a person from this world, neither did it find any magic. If you were the squid whisperer Midou Torao then I would know now. The only explanation is that you aren’t from this world, or that you have a perfect counter-magic for this specific unique machine. But that’s even more unlikely than the different world thing. So yeah, I believe you. What do you want to do now?”

“Thank you Gaku”, Torao breathed freely again. “I knew I could count on you. Even alternate you.”

“No problem, but it’s kinda weird that you know me when I have no idea who you are.”

“I have a ring for you!”, Torao took the blue Astro Ranger ring from his pocket. “It’s technically my-world Gaku’s, but I bet it’ll work for you too!”

“A ring?”, laundry-Gaku grinned. “Look Midou, we just met, I don’t think I’m ready for that kind of commitment yet—”

“It’s the Astro Ranger’s transformation device”, Torao said. “Just put it on, it’ll make you stronger.”

Laundry-Gaku sighed and took the ring. He didn’t put it on though. Instead he pocketed it. “I’ll keep it for you, alright?”

“Fine”, Torao mumbled. “Okay, next we gotta find the others…”

“We could look for them on the net too”, laundry-Gaku offered.

“Alright, I already checked social media, but… Try ‘Natsume Minami’.”

Saying the name of his boyfriend made Torao a little uneasy. His Minami in the other world would be fine, totally, but what was this world’s Minami like? He could handle Gaku being slightly weird and owning a laundrette, but would it be the same with Minami?

“Oh, Natsume? I know him actually”, laundry-Gaku said, surprisingly.

“But earlier you said you had never heard any of the names I said?”

“Yeah but now that you say his full name, I remembered that he comes here to wash his work clothes sometimes.”

“So you don’t _know him_ know him.”

“Nah, but he’s a customer. As far as I know his route goes through this street too. It might almost be time. Let’s wait for him outside.”

Torao followed laundry-Gaku outside of the shop and sat down on the stairs in front.

“So, what are you even going to do when you have all of your friends’ alternative versions gathered?”, laundry-Gaku asked.

“Fight kaijuu?”, Torao was confused. What else was he going to do? It was a kaijuu fight that got him here, so a kaijuu fight that’d bring him back. Though he wasn’t sure if that orb-thing was actually a kaijuu… but the kaijuu alarm from his ring had brought him there. He was right about that at least. And if it connected to here… there was no way this was a one-way-street, right? Who knew, maybe there were two of all of them here, and he just had the bad luck to run into laundry-Gaku before everyone else… but if he gathered everyone it’d surely work out somehow. There was no way they weren’t also looking for him and the others if they were here.

“A kaijuu brought you here?”

“Probably”, Torao said. “It’s complicated. I’ll explain later.”

Laundry-Gaku accepted with a shrug.

A white truck came to a halt at the small public green space halfway across the street.

“That’s him”, laundry-Gaku said. “Let’s go.”

Torao followed him and as they walked towards the truck that turned out to be an ice cream truck. It was slightly out of season for an ice cream truck, but Torao forgot all about that when he saw who was selling the ice cream.

“It’s really him”, he mumbled.

“Welcome”, ice-Minami said. “How can I help you?”

Before Torao could say anything, laundry-Gaku interrupted him.

“Yo, Natsume”, he said. “This guy is in a bit of a predicament and it seems that we can help him.”

“My, Yaotome-san from the laundrette?”, ice-Minami said. “How would we be able to help this fellow?”

“You see—“, Torao wanted to start, but again laundry-Gaku was faster.

“He’s from another world. Where there’s no magic. And it seems that there he’s a hero and he somehow got transported here, and in that world we’re part of his hero team. He knew your name, and judging by his reaction earlier also your face, and I tested him. He really doesn’t have magic. So let’s skip the ‘I don’t trust this’ step and just go right to ‘Alright, I will help you, Yaotome-san and Midou-san.’, okay?”

“That _does_ speed things up, Yaotome-san”, ice-Minami said. He seemed to think for a few moments, but then he smiled one of those mysterious Minami-smiles. “Alright, I will help you, Yaotome-san and Midou-san. Though, answer me this: Is this world’s version of you the squid whisperer Midou Torao-san?”

“I guess”, Torao said. That was the first thing he actually said to ice-Minami. Thanks laundry-Gaku.

“Then I do hope that by bringing you back to the world you came from, we will get that Midou-san back. I was an avid reader of his blog until he suddenly stopped posting.”

“…yeah, sure”, Torao said. He still wasn’t sold on the whole squid whisperer thing.

“Then, would you like to get in? I can drive you to where you want to go next. I assume Yaotome-san and I are not the only people you would like to gather. And I was going to wrap it up for today either way…”

“Wait Minami, I still have a ring for you.”

Laundry-Gaku next to him rolled his eyes.

“A ring? My, Midou-san, before the first date? How aggressive. I like it”, Torao knew that voice and expression too well.

“I have a boyfriend”, he said without thinking about it. To… his boyfriend’s alternate reality version. “Uh. I mean. It’s my Minami-from-my-world’s Astro Ring. It’ll let you transform into Astro Black. I hope. As soon as we find White and Pink at least.”

Ice-Minami put on the ring and admired it. “Very well. Thank you, Midou-san from another world. Now if you would get in my truck and tell me where we are going?”

“Uh… so next it would be either Yuki or Nikaidou Yamato”, Torao said. “Can you look them up?”

“Sure. You don’t know Yuki’s full name?”, laundry-Gaku answered.

“Ah, yeah, he just goes by Yuki”, Torao said. “I guess it will be difficult to find him, huh…”

“Oh, I know of one Yuki-san”, ice-Minami said. “He and I are part of the same painting circle. He is quite amusing to be around.”

“Does he perhaps bring up unrelated trivia at random points of the conversation?”, Torao asked. If laundry-Gaku and ice-Minami felt similar to Blue and Black, then it would make sense if this world’s Yuki was similar to White.

“He does indeed. I have learnt much about succulents’ callouses because of him”, ice-Minami said.

“Let’s try your painting circle, then. Is there a meeting today?”, laundry-Gaku asked.

“As it happens, there is one”, ice-Minami answered as he started his truck’s engine. 

Ice-Minami was driving skilfully through the streets of the city. Torao was riding shotgun and staring blankly at the hands that rested on the steering wheel, with one of them moving occasionally to shift gears. His driving was silent and felt very much like, well, Minami; the complete opposite of his own reckless motorbike driving. Torao’s thoughts wandered again to his boyfriend and he wondered how it would feel to go on a date if Minami was the one driving.

Torao woke up from his stupor when ice-Minami parked his truck in front of a cultural building. Laundry-Gaku had surprisingly stayed quiet the whole way, probably because he was looking Yamato up on his phone and probably also because it hadn’t been much longer than ten minutes.

Ice-Minami guided them to the painting circle’s room. It wasn’t a small room, but it was cluttered with supplies and… artwork? on the sides; and there was a big, paint-splattered table in the middle which occupied most of the room.

“Yuki-san always sits over there”, ice-Minami said and walked in. “And it seems today is no exception. Hello, Yuki-san.”

Painting-circle-Yuki was the only person in the room besides them and he was sitting in a corner, painting something on a piece of paper and surrounded by plants. It made you wonder if you didn’t involuntarily step in the gardening circle’s room.

“Hi, Minami-kun. I’m glad you could make it for the painting circle’s day of painting circles.”

“What?”, Torao asked involuntarily.

“Oh, new faces? Here you go”, painting-Yuki said, and handed Torao and laundry-Gaku a little potted plant and a piece of paper with a mandala. “Welcome to the painting circle.”

Torao accepted the plant and paper by reflex. “Uh… he really is this world’s Yuki.”

Laundry-Gaku was, like Torao, confused by the sudden gift(?). Ice-Minami was unfazed and introduced them to... plant-and-painting-Yuki.

“Make sure to give her water every day except the 13th and 16th of each month, Torao-kun. And you should give him water on every even-numbered day except the 8th, Gaku-kun. They say it’s nicer to drink a bit less sometimes. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too, Yuki-san”, laundry-Gaku recovered quickly and explained the situation without letting Torao speak, again.

“I see, that sounds like a big problem”, plant-Yuki commented, and proceeded to continue painting his mandala.

“So uhh, Yuki? Would you help us?”, Torao insisted. He was used to Astro Ranger Yuki’s antics and plant-Yuki did indeed seem similar to him. “Oh! I should also give you this ring.”

“My, I’d be glad to help you”, plant-Yuki answered. “but I’m engaged.”

Ice-Minami chuckled. He had sat down at some point and started painting a mandala as well.

“No! I mean. This is White’s transformation ring. If you put it on and we find Pink, maybe we can transform and I can go back somehow”, Torao said and also sat down.

Yuki nodded, put on the ring, and continued painting.

“So that’s how it is”, laundry-Gaku said. “Should we get going to find this ‘Nikaidou Yamato’?”

“I will finish painting this first”, plant-Yuki said. “You should try. It’s fun.”

Seeing neither plant-Yuki nor ice-Minami in a hurry to go, Torao exchanged glances with laundry-Gaku. He shrugged, sat down, and started painting his own mandala. Torao, confused, followed suit.

After about half an hour of mandala painting, Torao let go of the pen he was using to haphazardly fill in the lines and stood up.

“So…”, he spoke. “Are we gonna go look for our last member or…?”

“Ah, right”, plant-Yuki chuckled. “I had almost forgotten about it.”

“Me too, painting was so relaxing”, ice-Minami added.

“Same”, laundry-Gaku nodded as well. “But I did find out where a certain Nikaidou Yamato works.”

“Great, can we go then?”, Torao sighed. It weirdly felt like any other day he’d spent with the Astro Rangers, indulging in some random activity that White had proposed.

“Alright but let me finish planting these little flowers first”, plant-Yuki explained.

“Hah…”

“You see,” he continued. “Changing pots for plants is like life.”

“Huh?”

“Pots are like pants. Sometimes your old pots don’t—excuse me, I meant pants. Sometimes your old pants don’t fit anymore, so you have to go buy new ones.”

“...?”, Torao glanced over to laundry-Gaku but that one just shrugged; ice-Minami chuckled.

“And that’s why you need to properly fertilize pants—I mean plants”, he corrected himself again.

“...are you okay?”, Torao asked, somewhat worried.

“I’m perfectly fine, yes”, he nodded and stood up from his seat. “My magic is granting plants a better environment to grow in.”

“So… fertilizer magic?”

“Simply put, yes”, he nodded one more time. “Alright, let’s go visit this Yamato-kun.”

“Thank you”, Torao rolled his eyes and the four left the room to head towards ice-Minami’s truck. They got on and ice-Minami started driving to the address laundry-Gaku had told him. Despite everything that had been going on, Torao still enjoyed this weird little adventure with his almost-friends.

After another short ten minutes ride of plant-Yuki and laundry-Gaku discussing the cinematic importance of training montages in various fighting films and battle anime, the group arrived at their destination.

“A museum?”, Torao asked as he stepped out of the truck. He looked around but it seemed like a normal museum, no overly specific differentiation like it being the museum of the history of seven-armed starfish or something.

“Yeah”, laundry-Gaku confirmed. “Apparently he works here as one of the curators for the dinosaur section.”

“Huh?”, Torao was confused.

“Well, let’s head inside and see if you can find him since this time it seems no one of us knows this Nikaidou-san”, ice-Minami suggested, and they went inside. They walked through the entrance and were standing in a big hall, a tall animal skeleton looming over them in the middle of the hall.

Torao gasped and jumped back on reflexes while the other three looked at him with a confused expression.

“Is that a bone kaijuu!?”, he asked in a battle-ready pose.

“A… kaijuu?”, ice-Minami asked back.

“Yeah! The things we Astro Ranger fight!”

“Ahaha, silly Torao, there are no kaijuu in this world”, a familiar voice called out to him from behind.

“Yamato!?”, Torao exclaimed.

“Oh, found him”, plant-Yuki smiled. “I assume.”

“Do you know who I am?”

“Uhh… wait what…?”, Yamato(?) seemed confused all of a sudden.

“Pink?”, Torao asked again.

“Who’re you calling Pink, Red”, he said. “Wait, who am _I_ calling Red? What?”

“...did you drink too much again?”

“Excuse you, I don’t drink when I work”, he crossed his arms. “And who are you people anyway? Are you here to see the new dinosaur fossils?”

“The what?”, now Torao was confused again too.

“Ohh, I think I got it now”, laundry-Gaku raised an index finger as if it dawned on him.

“Enlighten us, Yaotome-san”, Minami said.

“Midou thinks these skeletons are kaijuus”, he explained.

“Wait skeletons? You’re showing off dead kaijuus!?”

“No”, he shook his head. “These aren’t kaijuus in the first place. They’re dinosaurs.”

“Wha—”

“Kaijuus don’t exist in this world, Midou.”

“...there’s no kaijuus here!?”, he exclaimed in shock.

“DUN DUN DUUUNN!!”, noise resounded in the distance.

“Ah, sorry. The local orchestra is rehearsing in our exhibition hall”, Yamato(?) said as the other four stared at him. “What?”

“What?”

“What?”

“Stop parroting back at them Pi—, uhh, Yamato…?”, Torao wasn’t exactly sure what to call him.

“Look I don’t know which one I am either”, not-quite-Pink-Yamato said. “But it’s gonna be really annoying for the readers if you keep calling us all by those nicknames you’ve been calling us.”

Now it was Torao’s turn to say it. “What?”

“Doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter. Anyway, just call us by our first names for now? That’ll be easiest”, Yamato stretched and yawned. “Anyone want a snack? I’m starving.”

Torao actually hadn’t eaten all day, and that showed in the way he wolfed (or tigered) down his food.

“Easy there”, Yuki admonished him gently. “The soba did not murder your family.”

He thought for a moment.

“Probably”, he added.

“It would never”, Gaku said. “Soba is angelic and pure. It can’t commit sins.”

“Probably”, Yuki said again. Minami chuckled.

“I am interested though, Nikaidou-san”, Minami said then. “Midou-san has told us about how he arrived here, but what is your account?”

“Well, it’s kinda hazy because I’m both Astro Pink and museum worker Nikaidou Yamato right now. But basically, the second Astro Red hit that orbicular kaijuu he was sucked in, and I felt kind of light-headed. I was detached from my body and next thing I knew I was aware of myself again and had been living here all my life and was working at the museum. When I saw Red I remembered, but yeah no idea.”

“The kaijuu disembodied you, huh…”, Torao mumbled. “Then you think Pink’s physical body is still over there?”

“Maybe? I dunno”, Yamato shrugged. “The others no idea, but because you all here are normal and not a buy one get another one for free version of yourself from two worlds… I think they’re probably fine.”

Torao felt a little relieved. If they were fine, they’d take care of Pink’s body and the kaijuu as well maybe. If it was even still there. And they’d surely also work towards getting him back. Definitely. So he had to do his best too.

“Okay, let’s meet again tomorrow”, he said. “I’m gonna crash at Yamato’s place.”

Yamato nodded, but the others looked at him blankly.

“I have work tomorrow”, Gaku said.

“I do too.”

Yuki nodded in agreement with the other two.

Right. They weren’t full-time heroes, or at least in this world it wasn’t socially acceptable to stop doing other jobs for the sake of hero-ing.

“Then we just meet after you finish work”, Torao said. “Better?”

“Alright, fine by me”, Gaku mumbled.

“I have to help out in my honey’s haberdashery store…”, Yuki said. “But I’m sure he will understand.”

“Sorry for not asking earlier”, Torao said. “But that’s Momo you’re talking about, right?”

“Yes! How did you know?”

“Ah I just. Know Momo. The Momo from my world, you know?”

Torao decided not to elaborate on Momo from his world. That was a story on its own. A haberdashery store though… was that related to some kind of super specific magic too…?

“Anyway”, he said. “Let’s meet up at Gaku’s laundrette tomorrow. Pink and I—I mean, Yamato and I will think of something we can try doing until then.”

“Let’s try transforming”, Torao suggested. “Maybe that’ll give us some hints.”

“ _That’s_ what you came up with?”

“Shush Pink, I didn’t hear any ideas from _you_.”

“Well, I have a job here.”

“Yeah, looking at dead kaijuus all day.”

“ _Dinosaurs_.”

“Still no idea what those are supposed to be.”

“Do we have to do anything to transform?”, Gaku’s question interrupted the two. He was eyeing his ring curiously. “Like say a line?”

“Yeah! But don’t worry, I wrote your lines down, so you can rest easy”, Torao said. “Here you go.”

“This is a whole script!”, Minami said. “Interesting…”

“Yeah, I used Yamato’s printer. Did you know that yellow was empty, and I could still print in black and white? That’s something they should invent in our world too…”

“Oh you have one of those Tsunashi-Printers, Nikaidou?”, Gaku said. “It’s a special magic item, very rare to see one of those in private use.”

“Well, it’s a long story.”

“So printers that print black and white without yellow only exist because of magic, huh…”, Torao mumbled. 

“You even described the pose we have to do”, Minami said. He tried it based on the description that Torao had written. It was almost perfect.

“Good”, Torao said. “Try lifting your shoulders more and puff out your chest a little. Yes, like that.”

Everyone else studied Minami’s excellent form, and then tried replicating it. In their own ways they were… trying their best. 

Their best sure wasn’t anywhere the standard Torao was used to. 

“Pink, come on. You gotta remember more than that.”

“Yeah I sure do. I also remember my line, and the Yamato-only part of me _really_ doesn’t want to say that.”

“Get over it Nikaidou”, Gaku said. “At least you know some stuff.”

“Oh my, are you embarrassed to be posing like a hero from a TV show inside of your laundrette?”, Yuki asked. Minami was helping correct his form at the moment. Being a walking plant fertilizer apparently hadn’t done this world’s Yuki’s muscles much good. No wonder. He probably spent all his days sitting in his flower shop chilling with the plants thriving around him.

“Nah, I love it”, Gaku said. “I did this all the time. When I was like five.”

“This is _serious_ ”, Torao said.

“Yeah sure. ‘Justice’, huh? Are kaijuus capable of concepts such as ‘good’ and ‘evil’?”, Gaku asked.

“Why are you asking me about lore that I haven’t found out about yet…?”, Torao said. “I don’t know! But maybe this special case will lead me to some answers. I’ll get back to you.”

“Thanks. I’m curious.”

“Hmm, perhaps that is what wiped out our dinosaurs”, Minami mused. 

“What?”, Yamato asked. “What was that about dinosaurs?”

“No, I simply meant that if the dinosaurs debated about morality as well, then perhaps dinosaur society crumbled and collapsed because of the philosophical warfare that followed.”

“Your world’s kaijuus had a society?? That existed before humans?”

“He’s messing with you, Midou”, Gaku said.

“What?!”

“Fufu… Forgive me but seeing someone like you so fascinated by dinosaur stories is delightful.”

Torao grumbled something to himself that, to be honest, he himself didn’t know the content of.

“Let’s just try and transform”, he said then.

Everyone got into position.

“Bringing justice upon evil with the slash of a tiger’s claw! I’m Astro Red!”

“Bringing justice upon evil with the slither of a whip! I’m Astro Black!”

“Bringing justice upon evil with a dragon’s mysterious power! I’m Astro White!”

“Bringing justice upon evil with an oxen’s pummel! I’m Astro Blue!”

“Bringing justice upon evil with a bunny’s hop! I’m Astro Pink! …………………...pyon.”

“Astro Rangers! Head ou—”, Torao called, but interrupted himself.

“It didn’t work”, he observed. 

“It did not”, Minami nodded. “Nikaidou-san did not say his line correctly.”

“...seriously, do I have to.”

“Yes!”, everyone else said in sync. 

“Woah woah, calm down. Onii-san isn’t sure he should be Pink. Wouldn’t anyone else look better in pink… Gaku?”

“Nah dude, I’m Blue. The pyon pyon thing isn’t that bad, come on.”

Yamato sighed. “Musashi help me.”

Everyone got into position again. 

“Bringing justice upon evil with the slash of a tiger’s claw! I’m Astro Red!”

“Bringing justice upon evil with the slither of a whip! I’m Astro Black!”

“Bringing justice upon evil with a dragon’s mysterious power! I’m Astro White!”

“Bringing justice upon evil with an oxen’s pummel! I’m Astro Blue!”

“Bringing justice upon evil with a bunny’s hop! I’m Astro Pink, pyon!”

“Astro Rangers! Head out!”, Torao called. 

This time… something happened.

“The Astro Rings!”, Torao exclaimed. “It didn’t work, but they glowed!”

“Because this time Yamato-kun didn’t hesitate to say pyon”, Yuki added.

“I will never understand why my line has to be more embarrassing than the others”, Yamato sighed.

“Still, what do we do? It feels like we got the poses and lines right, so are we missing something else?”, Gaku wondered aloud.

The silence did not have time to settle in the room before Torao, Gaku and Yuki interrupted it simultaneously. 

“I know!”

Torao and Gaku were surprised and looked at each other and at Yuki who was between them. Yuki did not care, however, so he continued talking at his own pace.

“It must be because of this, I should have realised it before”, he said, walked towards Yamato and handed him a potted plant. “You were the only one without a Yuki-plant.”

“This one is a nettle, so they don’t need much water and just the rain is enough. Be careful and don’t touch them, though. They can be quite prickly.”

“Uh. Thank you. I guess.”

“So, uh. Yeah”, Torao was at a loss for words. “What did you have in mind, Gaku?”

“I am glad you asked!”, Gaku smiled. “We should put Nikaidou in the magic detection device! Since he fused with the Pink-Nikaidou, his reading should be different from Midou’s, but also from the rest of us”

“The… what now?”

Gaku guided them all to his basement, presented the magic detection washing machine to Yamato and motioned him inside.

“…what the hell is this”, Yamato stared at it sceptically.

“A magic detection device.”

“I’m not getting in a washing machine. I will drown.” 

“You won’t drown”, Gaku rolled his eyes.

“I don’t trust you.”

“It is going to be fine, Nikaidou-san”, Minami chuckled. “It just looks like a washing machine. It does not wash you.”

Yamato was not convinced, and Minami’s smile was not something he would trust. Torao, however, seemed to also think it was a good idea. And Yuki… was Yuki.

“Fine”, Yamato sighed and got in the washing machine. “This better not do anything weird.”

The door closed and the machine was flooded with light. It was analysing Yamato’s magic. Suddenly, the machine started to shut down and a big, red light next to the control panel lit up. The lights inside also changed from white to red, and an emergency alarm went off.

Yamato panicked. He tried to get out, but the door was locked. He banged on the door while Torao pulled it from the outside and Gaku tried to unlock it from the control panel. 

Only a few stressful seconds had passed when suddenly everything turned off, including the lights of the basement itself. A power blackout. 

The door opened with a click, and Yamato stumbled out. He was sitting on the floor, exhausted, and was as far away as possible from the machine.

“Uh. Sorry, Nikaidou. This was not supposed to happen”, Gaku said. “This is the first time I’ve seen an error.”

“Not SUPPOSED to happen?!”, Yamato yelled. “I’m NEVER trusting your… _gadgets_ again.”

“Yeah. Sorry again, Nikaidou.”

“It will be fine, they said. It’s not a washing machine, they said.”

Gaku flipped the breaker switch and the lights turned on. The machine was also turning on, but Gaku hurriedly powered it off, which relieved Yamato slightly.

“You owe me a week of beer for this”, Yamato sighed after a while. 

“A month, if you want.”

“I’ll hold you to that. And? What was the last brilliant plan? Torao?”

“Oh. Uhm. I was going to say that maybe we should get some clothes or accessories of our respective colours. Since that’s what heroes do.”

“Sounds like a good enough reason for me, sure”, Gaku shrugged while Minami and Yuki nodded. Only Yamato sighed but gave in eventually; such was his fate in this story.

“I hate you”, he grumbled.

“Hm?”, Torao wondered.

“Nothing.”

“Cool.”

“Shall we go to the mall? I can drive”, Minami suggested.

“Yay”, Yuki clapped his hands. “Shopping time with acquaintances.”

“Can’t you call us friends at least?”, Torao asked.

“My, Torao-kun”, he chuckled. “Were you that brisk with our other selves too?”

“I don’t think I was”, he started thinking. “But I’ll tell you about that another day.”

“Fufu, very well.”

“Okay, where to first?”, Gaku asked, crossing his arms as the group of five stood in the shopping mall’s main hall. Despite it being dark outside already, the mall was bustling with shoppers walking from one store to the other.

“Wanna try accessories first?”, Torao asked and the others agreed to it, more or less.

They went up some floors using the escalators and entered a promising looking store. Torao’s gaze landed on a display of matching bandanas in different colours, which conveniently had all the colours they needed. He grabbed one in each of their colours and handed them to the others.

“How about this?”, he said with a grin as he wrapped his around his neck.

“Torao-kun the boy scout”, Yuki commented.

“No”, he exclaimed. “But with these, everyone can wear theirs however and wherever they want. So it’s the same but slightly different.”

“What are we, idols?”, Yamato raised an eyebrow.

“...I thought it’d be cool.”

“Maybe something smaller would be better?”, Minami mentioned.

“Like earrings”, Yuki held up a bunch of earrings he had found on a table.

“Ohh!”, Torao seemed excited again.

“They come in different colours and shapes.”

“I’m not gonna wear pink, heart-shaped piercings”, Yamato retorted.

“Ehh…?”, Yuki seemed shocked.

“My ears aren’t even pierced.”

“We can change that.”

“No!”

“They can do those here too apparently”, Gaku pointed to a sign on the wall.

“I said no!”

“Even though you’re half my Yamato you sure don’t act like him, you’re like a fraud”, Torao explained.

“Huh!?”, Yamato rearranged his glasses in annoyance. “Well I’m _sorry_ that I’ve got two minds or whatever smushed together into one puny brain. This isn’t how I imagined my week to go either, you know?”

“Pink is more cooperative, even if he doesn’t like doing it sometimes.”

“So you’re admitting that ‘I’ find this stupid too, yes?”

“I never said it was stupid.”

“Same difference!”, the two continued arguing.

“Did Nikaidou just call himself dumb before?”, Gaku asked the other two.

“I think he did, yes”, Minami nodded.

The two continued discussing and somehow arrived at a point where the question was whether it was or was not Torao’s fault that the big wrench fell on Yamato’s (hero-world Yamato’s) little toe.

“Guys”, Yuki intervened after a while. “Let’s calm down. You two can be such motormouths.”

“How would _you_ know!?”, the two of them asked at the same time.

“My, and in sync as well, fufu”, he chuckled.

“Should we try another store perhaps?”, Minami asked, trying to change the subject.

“Like what?”, Gaku asked.

“Well”, Minami turned to Torao. “Midou-san, may I ask you a question?”

“S-sure.”

“Correct me if I am wrong, but you want to have us have something of our colour on us, yes? So it does not necessarily have to be something we can _see_ , right?”

“Ohh…”, Torao nodded, he hadn’t thought of that.

“As expected.”

“So what you’re suggesting is—”, Gaku started talking but was interrupted by Yuki.

“Underwear!”

“...I’m going home”, Yamato said.

“I meant to say socks, but either work, I guess”, Minami smiled an ominous smile.

“Do we all have to get the same item though?”, Gaku asked. “What about some individuality?”

“Hmm”, Torao considered it. “True, we didn’t exactly go out of our way to buy stuff in our colours… Especially not matching stuff. Maybe sometimes it happened, but we were mostly drawn to our colours on our own.”

“You’re telling me that your-world-Nikaidou aka Pink likes dressing up in pink?”

“There’s nothing wrong with pink! It’s a pretty colour”, Yamato protested.

“Just saying. Doesn’t really fit you all that much. Wouldn’t green be better for you?”

“Green?”, Torao snorted. “Don’t be silly Gaku. He’s totally a pink guy.”

“Hmm, I can see both”, Minami cocked his head to look at Yamato scrutinisingly. “Perhaps this universe’s Nikaidou-san’s energy is more green-aligned?”

“He should take a uquiz”, Yuki said. “To find out what kind of flower he is. I’m suspecting he’ll get a teazle.”

“A teazle?”, Torao asked. “Why that one?”

“Just a feeling”, Yuki said cryptically.

Torao shook his head fondly.

They weren’t his friends, but they sure got close to the real deal.

On top of one of the skyscrapers towering above the city full of oddly specific magical shops, a light of an indescribable colour manifested.

It twirled and twisted in a vague orbicular shape, and soon a figure stepped out from inside, with far more grace and dignity than a particular stray hero.

Though…

The man who had stepped out of the light looked oddly similar to said hero.

“Back again”, he announced to the empty roof. Wind blew up the dark coat he was wearing dramatically. The arcane symbols stitched into the thick wool were as nonsensical to the untrained eye as morse code to a toddler, and yet they seemed to be full of meaning and significance.

“Back again in this lousy town whither I, _I_!, did hath't to pretend to be a squid whisperer.”

He shook off his hood, and in the pale moonlight an arrangement of piercings glinted in his ears. An eyepatch was covering his left eye, a symbol stitched into the shining leather that didn’t seem to be made from the hide of any creature known to this world.

“'t's all the fault of yond Nikaidou. In nay world can he leaveth me high-lone.”

He slipped on a ring. It was one of many, bedazzling the fingers of his left hand. It was part of an ensemble of rings, bands, bracelets. They seemed to serve some kind of purpose.

“Did shit, I just did want to findeth a new save hiding lodging. Alas 't. I hath't to doth everything myself.“

He placed his beringed hand over his eyepatch, and like a stone dropping into water, ripples spread over it as an illusion spread over it, making it look like a normal eye. The man blinked a couple of times, as if to test his mirage, and then nodded, satisfied. Another ring joined his hand, and he stretched. He had finally completed his task.

“Sealed once more! Anon, I can safely mingle with the peasants without those nasty men taking note of mine activities.”

He left the roof, leaving behind nothing but the vile aftertaste of a sinister power beyond anyone’s reckoning.

“I can’t believe there’s not a single pink sock left anywhere”, Yamato said as they left the sixth underwear shop of the day.

“My, it’s not good to call people liars, Yamato-kun”, Yuki said.

“I am not doing that. It just seems really weird. What kind of magic requires you to use socks, but _only_ pink socks?”

“This world’s Torao apparently whispers to squids so pink sock magic doesn’t seem that weird to me”, Torao shrugged. 

“Did you decide yet?”, Gaku asked as he approached the group and buttoned the cuffs of his new blue shirt.

Gaku got a groan from Yamato as an answer. Yuki had already been wearing a white cardigan, Torao bought a jacket even though his sneakers were red, and Minami showed a small bag and smiled.

“Wasn’t that the last underwear shop? Maybe you should find something else, Nikaidou.”

“Let’s try there”, Yuki said.

“...a flower shop?”

“Yes, a flower shop. Roses are red, but they can be pink too. You should wear one on your hair.”

“...if I didn’t know this hutzpah is just like White’s usual thing I would’ve asked why”, Yamato sighed. “Plus I don’t think a flower works, they wilt, you know.”

“The places we haven’t been to yet are that flower shop, the pawnbrokers, the pet shop and the measuring tape shop”, Minami said. “Or we can go back to the bandanas or the earrings if you want, Nikaidou-san.”

“Hah, fine”, Yamato sighed. “I’ll go get that bandana and put it in the pocket of my pants or something.”

“Ah wait, I got you covered!”, Torao exclaimed and grabbed a pink bandana from a paper bag he had been carrying around for a while.

“...what.”

“I…”, he cleared his throat. “Got one of each colour just in case.”

“Hah…”

“Hey, it came in handy!”

“Fine, whatever, thanks”, Yamato sighed yet again and stored the pink bandana in a pocket.

“Yamato-kun, you’ve been sighing an awful lot since we arrived here. Maybe you’re hungry?”, Yuki asked.

“I could eat something too, now that you mention it”, Gaku nodded.

“We’re not getting soba again!”, Yamato quickly stopped the other’s train of thought.

“Why not? Soba is always good.”

“Fufu, how about we take a break over there?”, Minami pointed to a store in the distance.

“The Cake King Autocracy?”, Torao read the sign out aloud.

“I have been told they sell fantastic pastries.”

“Hmm, sounds good to me”, Torao nodded.

“Fine”, Gaku shrugged.

“Well then, let us depart”, Yuki nodded, and they approached the café. Except Yamato, who just observed them walk away at first.

“...I never said I was hungry, did I…?”

The five sat down at a round table in the backmost part of the store and ordered cakes and something to drink; even Yamato did, despite complaining about it first. Their orders didn’t take long to arrive and before they could start eating, Yuki stopped them and took out his phone.

“Don’t tell me you’re gonna take a pic to upload it on social media or something”, Yamato rolled his eyes.

“Don’t be silly”, Yuki chuckled. “This is for the survey.”

“...huh?”

“What kind of survey?”, Minami wondered.

“I’ve been asked by a friend if I could take part in this survey, they and their business partner had sent out to several people.”

“What’s it about?”, Gaku asked.

“I’m not quite sure myself either”, he explained. “But I was told to take pictures of everything that I eat in a week and describe how I feel about it too.”

“Sounds interesting.”

“Sounds stupid”, Yamato added.

“Do they need the data for like a statistic or… wait”, Torao gasped. “...is this related to another weirdly specific magic?”

“I wonder…”, Yuki smiled and took a picture.

“Done?”, Yamato asked, holding his fork, ready to take a bite. He didn’t want cake in the first place, but he hated being interrupted by Yuki’s random antics even more, so conversely, he _really_ wanted to eat some cake right now.

“Indeed”, he nodded. “You may eat.”

They all dug in. Torao noticed how hungry he had gotten. Being in this strange different world with all that magic and other strange powers around was keeping him from listening to his body’s needs. Luckily, he had all those people around him who were normally living here and therefore weren’t confused…

“Hmm”, Minami said between bites of cake. “Midou-san is smiling. I wonder what jolly thoughts are running through his head right now.”

“Probably something about hero-stuff”, Yamato said.

“Or something naughty.”

“Gaku!”, Yuki admonished before smiling. “Alright, I’ll admit it, I was thinking naughty too.”

“Nothing like that”, Torao said. “I was just thinking about you.”

“Us?”

“Yeah, how lucky I am to have found my friends again, even here. Despite being separated by worlds, I still managed to find you all! Makes you think, right? Kind of like it’s our destiny to be a team.”

Yamato/Pink rolled his eyes, as if to say, ‘here we go again’.

“It’s odd right? That, even though this is a different world, and ‘I’ don’t seem to exist, or at least not anymore, I can still sit here with all of you and feel like I am in the right place.”

“You think that highly of us?”, Minami asked. “And yet you have only known us for a day or two. Apart from Nikaidou-san perhaps, but he is a special case.”

Torao knew that tone from Black.

“What are you suggesting?”, he asked.

“How about we try and get to know each other better?”, Minami asked. “What if we took turns asking you questions about ourselves, and you gave us your answer based on the knowledge you have on the alternative versions of us?”

“Sounds fun~”, Yuki said. Gaku nodded.

Yamato sighed. “I don’t even know who I am.”

“Poor Nikaidou-san. Who truly knows who they are?”

“Don’t tease me, Natsume, I have a magic that I don't know what it is or how to use it, but I sure am not afraid to use it.”

“Hey, don’t attack Minam—“, Torao interrupted himself. Right, this wasn’t his Minami. This Minami could very easily defend himself. His Minami could also definitely do that, but with him Torao kind of felt like he had the right to say something like that.

Minami stirred his drink with his finger, and fresh ice cubes formed from the liquid.

“I’ll just start”, Gaku said. “But I wanna ask a question back too.”

“Sure”, Torao said. “Hit me with your best shot.”

“What is my favourite food?”, Gaku asked.

Yamato crossed his arms. “Dude, that’s not even a challenge, you took us out to eat soba like yesterday. Ask another question.”

“I wanted to know if the parallel world-me was like that too.”

“Yeah he is, now do another question.”

“Okay… hmm… What almost landed me in jail in my second year of college?”, Gaku asked.

“Jail?”, Torao asked the same moment Yamato said “College?”

Torao thought about it. “Hmm with you it was probably some kind of getting caught up in something. But I don’t… know of Blue ever doing anything that got him put into jail.”

“Almost”, Gaku corrected him. “And it was a rally against animal cruelty towards the cloned unicorns from HornTerprises a couple of years ago.”

“That advocacy was well-received by the public and media but ill-received by the market”, Yuki seemed to reminisce about it. “And there were some clashes between demonstrators and police. So you were part of that, Gakkyun.”

Yamato and Torao exchanged a look.

“You guys have unicorns??”, Torao asked then.

“Had. They went extinct because of overfishing and then HornTerprises started cloning them to harvest horns. A cruel thing, really.”

“ _You overfished your unicorns_??????”

“Yeah”, Gaku said. “What, do your unicorns not live underwater?”

“We… don’t have unicorns at all. No real ones at least”, Torao said. “They’re fairytale creatures. Like horses but with horns.”

“Yeah. Big horses with horns. That live underwater.”

“No they don’t live underwater, they—“, Torao gave up. “No they don’t really exist in the first place. Alright, question done, what’s your question for me?”

“I want to know which one your favourite member of your Astro Rangers is”, Gaku said. The grin on his face said that he didn’t really care and just wanted to mess with Torao a little.

“Depends on who’s asking”, Torao said. “If it’s you—”

“Let me stop you right there, Midou-san”, Minami said. “I believe that this question might be answered with another question, so let me have my turn first.”

Confusedly the others leaned back. Yuki was munching cake.

“My question to you is: ‘What was my dream job when I was a child?’ I wonder if the other me and I had similar aspirations.”

“Black wanted to be a speed metal band’s lead singer when he was little”, Torao said without missing a beat.

“Seriously?”, Minami chuckled. “My, it seems we had a similar hobby that went into different directions.”

“Oh cool. So you wanted to be a musician too?”

“Indeed. My dream was to become a professional harpist – however my magic led me down a different path, and I could not be happier.”

“The harp is truly a magnificent musical instrument”, Yuki commented. “Speed metal as a genre is similarly magnificent though.”

“Now to my question”, Minami leant forward a little, putting part of his weight onto his elbows on the table. “You mentioned that you had a boyfriend, Midou-san. Is it one of the other Astro Rangers, and if yes, which one is it?”

Torao felt his cheeks heat up a bit. He sent a look sideways to find Pink’s (not the museum guy’s) help, but he purposely looked away.

Gaku misinterpreted the glance. “It’s Nikaidou? Seriously? I thought for sure it’d be me. You found me here first too, right?”

“Do you _want_ to date Torao-kun, Gakkyun?”, Yuki cocked his head. “I assumed it would not be me, because he mentioned my Momo, but I did have an educated guess, and the result was not you.”

“Huh”, Gaku said disappointedly. “Man, I wish I was more popular. Laundrette owners have it hard.”

“Don’t worry, you’re fairly popular in our world”, Torao said. “But the one I’m dating is Black. Next question.”

Minami leaned back with a satisfied look on his face. Torao knew that expression too well, and he forced himself to look away and focus on Yuki instead.

“What about your question Yuki?”, he asked.

“Do I have a pet?”

“Banri-chan, 11 years old”, Torao answered without hesitation. “But it’s not a pet, it’s a plant.”

“Plants can be pets too”, Yuki pointed out. “And Banri-chan is not just any plant, he is a morning glory.”

While staring at Torao, Yuki ate another forkful of cake and sipped his tea.

“Do we go on double dates with Momo and Black?”, Yuki asked as he put down his cup.

Torao’s brain processed the question for a second and then he buried his face in his hands, with his elbows on the table. He sighed. He’d thought Yuki moved the conversation away from Black but was instead backstabbed with this question. 

“Yes, we do. Twice so far”, Torao said, and didn’t elaborate. But he had already given up on the round of questions not tailspinning into an interrogation of Black’s and his love life.

Gaku saw Torao questioning him with a look. “No, no”, he said. “It’s not my turn yet. I want Nikaidou to ask questions too.”

“Huh? What’s the point?”, Yamato was brought back from his own little world that was him and his slice of cake.

“It’s fun? Also, the whole point of this is to get to know each other”, Gaku said.

“No, wait, Yaotome-san”, Minami said and smiled. “Would it not be better if we came up with Nikaidou-san’s questions instead?”

“Great idea, Natsume!”

“Are you guys villains? Ruffians? Did someone hire you to bully me??”

“My, how could you suggest that”, Yuki said. “We’re not bullying you, Yappi.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that…”

“Fiddlesticks!”

“Hmm, what could Nikaidou ask…”, Gaku started thinking.

“We just have to start thinking like him”, Yuki added.

“I wonder what Nikaidou-san thinks about”, Minami mused.

“The inner machinations of my mind are an enigma”, Yamato said drily. The other four looked at him with a confused expression but kind-of-and-kind-of-not-Pink just shrugged.

“Oh I know”, Yuki raised a finger. “Alright Toppi, this is Yappi’s question: what happened in his childhood for him to become so grumpy?”

“I can tell you why I’m grumpy _right now_ ”, Yamato groaned.

“Later.”

“Uhh…”, Torao started thinking. “I don’t think he ever told me that, but now that you mention it”, he turned to Yamato. “What _did_ happen?”

“I hate you all”, Yamato sighed. “Okay, time for my question.”

“Ehh…”, Yuki exclaimed.

“Can we stop playing this now and move on to something else?”

“Whoa, deja-vu”, Torao said. “Pink said the exact same thing in the exact same tone once before when White was going on about the specific differences between udders of several animals.”

“What” Gaku, Minami and Yuki said at the same time.

“Oh god, why did you have to tell me that, now I kinda remember”, Yamato lowered his head onto the table.

“It was a very wild evening”, Torao continued.

“Why was he talking about that?”, Minami asked.

“I’m not quite sure myself either but like”, he glanced at Yuki. “Yeah.”

“I must say that I am very intrigued now as well”, Yuki nodded. “I shall look up information on it and let you all know tomorrow.”

“Cool”, Gaku said and drank from his cup. “I kinda could get used to this. It’s fun spending time with friends like this.”

“Ugh, there goes the guy with his cringy stuff”, Yamato complained without lifting his head.

“Do you want another piece of cake?”, Yuki chuckled.

“No.”

“Some more tea?”, Minami asked.

“No.”

“Wanna go for soba?”, Gaku asked.

“No god damn it”, he said and finally looked at the others again. “Look, I don’t dislike this either… I think… But I kinda don’t wanna have these two minds in my head, it’s not as cool as it sounds.”

“Yeah”, Torao nodded. “It’s a really nice experience I’ve gotta admit, but I do hope to get back to my world eventually. Since there doesn’t seem to be a way to know what’s going on there at the moment, I’m still a bit worried.”

“About your partner?”, Minami smiled.

“I’d be lying if I said no, but also the others.”

“Fufu, I am sorry for teasing you, Midou-san”, Minami tucked a strand of hair behind his ear. Torao knew that motion all too well. “But I do hope to get a chance to eventually meet our world’s Midou-san too.”

“...g-good luck”, Torao replied.

“Man, you guys kinda sound like soulmates”, Gaku sighed at the two. “And even Yuppi’s got someone - the same someone - that he’s together with. And Yappi’s…”, he looked at Yamato.

“I dunno, my head’s starting to hurt.”

“Anyways, where’s _my_ romantic story?”

“I’m sure you’ll find someone lovely someday, Yaotome-san”, Minami reassured him.

“Really?”

“Definitely, you’re a great guy”, Torao grinned.

“Wouldn’t sign that one”, Yamato said.

“Rude”, Yuki shook his head and took another sip from his cup.

“Have we talked enough about romance now?”, Yamato said. “Look, not everyone cares about that kind of thing, and I think we have other things to worry about right now. Like figuring out how to transform. So we can get the other me and Torao back to our— their?— world.”

“Yes”, Minami nodded. “However, it has gotten quite late. I propose we end things here for today and meet up again tomorrow.”

“Gives us time to get into touch with our new coloured clothes too”, Gaku nodded. “Oh right!”

“I also remembered just now, Gakkyun”, Yuki said.

“Yeah, we got you something, Torao”, Gaku held out something for Torao to take.

“A phone?”

“It’s nothing fancy, but it’s a phone that’ll definitely work here. You had problems with yours, right? Probably something about different radio frequencies. Like the problem of ‘if aliens send radio signals, would we even be able to pick them up if we don’t know the frequencies?’, I guess.”

“Also we saved all our numbers”, Yuki said.

“Even Yappi’s”, Gaku added.

“Even mine”, Yamato seemed to have resigned to that nickname.

“…thank you”, Torao said. “That’s a really good idea. This way I don’t have to rely on Pink to put me in contact with everyone.”

Yuki and Gaku looked pleased with themselves.

They paid and split up, Gaku and Yuki following Minami to his ice cream truck. He would be driving them home. Yamato and Torao walked to a subway station. It was filled to the brim with people and Torao almost lost sight of Yamato.

“Hey”, he called over the crowd. “Let’s each get on the subway on our own. We’ll meet up again at the station.”

He caught a glimpse of Yamato giving him a thumbs up before he was swallowed by the crowd.

The station by Yamato’s apartment wouldn’t be as crowded, so it’d be easier to meet up again there than try and stay together in this mess.

He got on the subway, pressed together with really _way_ too many people, and it took off. Station by station more and more people got off, and finally Torao could breathe again.

He felt his eyelids grow heavy all of a sudden, but he couldn’t sleep here. He had to get off at the next stop already. He could still sleep at home.

The subway stopped. The door opened, and Torao stumbled out. The cool air from outside hit his face and cleared up his mind that had grown foggy with tiredness.

Only now he noticed that his mind wasn’t the only foggy thing. Genuine fog was streaming into the deserted station, thick and threatening arms of white haziness approaching him, as if Torao were a magnet, spiralling about in an appalling slow-dance.

This wasn’t normal. His surroundings were growing foggier and foggier, and the station was almost disappearing behind the surreal white wall that formed around him.

Was he going to meet a virtual tutorial character now and have to fight demons…? That had also been in a subway station, right? It had been a while since he had played that game.

The thought of the game woke Torao up enough so that he could do something sensible. He pulled out his phone, the new one that Yuki and Gaku had gotten for him.

The screen stayed dark. As if the battery was empty… but Torao knew better. It had just been fully charged when Gaku gave it to him earlier.

This was a different issue altogether.

“Where are you?”, he called. “Show yourself!”

The red ring around his finger felt heavy.

He heard a step from behind him and turned around, but there was nothing but fog. Fog everywhere. Slowly it seemed to lose even the white colour, making room for a colour that Torao had almost forgotten. He had found it hard to look at before, but now that that indescribable colour was bleeding into the fog, Torao felt his eyes burn with tears. As if he was cutting onions.

A face manifested from the fog. The way the other’s hair parted… it was uncannily familiar to him.

Because he saw this in the mirror every day.

It was his own face.

The grin on the other Torao’s face was unfamiliar to him though. He hadn’t tapped into the potential of losing his mind yet, but this man had apparently not hesitated and jumped over the edge of that cliff a long time ago.

“I shalt accept thy relinquishment, Midou Torao”, his own voice resounded in his head. No actual sound reached him from the lips of that mirror image. He was speaking directly into his head.

“Never!”, Torao called. “Astro Red – Emergency Transformation! Solo Justice Slash!”

His ring began glowing hot red – the distress signal that would be sent to all the other Astro Rangers.

If they existed in the space he was currently in. He was pretty sure that this wasn’t the subway station anymore. But maybe… hopefully it would still reach them.

He transformed.

Finally.

This was how he felt the most secure, his claws in hand, and all suited up.

He’d fight him off. Just until the others got here. The colour of the fog was evidence enough. This other him was at fault for this mess, and he’d have him take responsibility.

With a roar he cut through the silhouette in the fog but didn’t find any resistance. The fog just dispersed and reformed in a different place. Torao would need a different strategy. This solo transformation wasn’t as powerful as when he was with the others, so he’d have to hurry before he powered himself out.

He turned around quickly to see an arm of fog coming towards him. He evaded that one, cut through another. A third one grazed his arm, but instead of hurting or binding him, his arm just went right through.

What the hell, was there no danger in this fog after all?

No, there was something sinister about it. Torao was sure about that. His gut feeling told him so.

If it wasn't already enough that he saw his doppelganger in the fog. Though he had seen a lot of doppelgangers in the past few days…

He shook off these thoughts and evaded another attack of fog, but one arm managed to sneak around his ankle before he rammed his claws into it.

“Where are you?”, Torao called. “Show yourself!”

“I'm afraid yond I cannot doth yond”, the voice that sounded just like his own answered him. Again he didn’t physically hear it. “Mine presence couldst overwhelm thee to the point whither thee loseth yourself.”

Torao shivered at those words and evaded another fog arm, walking into a new one from the other side in the process. They were everywhere now. His arms were slowly growing heavy, and his breathing was laboured.

Was the fog draining his strength or was he really that weak in this form?

“Though I would assume...”, the other Torao laughed. It was a villain laugh. “Yond would beest beneficial for me.”

Torao felt his arms drop as they couldn’t support the weight of his claws anymore. An arm of fog that felt oddly more solid than the others closed around his neck and lifted him up. Kicking at thin air Torao tried freeing himself to no avail. He transformed back into just Midou Torao. Was this the end?

No.

No, he refused to be bested here. This wasn’t the place for Astro Red to go down. He had a responsibility and a mission. He couldn’t just—

Dark spots danced before his eyes. He had to warn the others somehow. That there was a being here that was stronger than him, and different from all kaijuus he had fought before. A being Torao didn’t understand to the point where he was powerless.

Damn. It felt bad admitting that, even in his thoughts.

An idea flashed through his delirious mind. In a fit of desperate strength he quickly pulled out his phone, the old one, and turned it on. This one, inexplicably, was still working. Using muscle memory he opened a messenger service. He hoped that he didn’t type in too many typos, but a couple would be alright. He just had to have this message on the phone. So it could be found.

He finished writing and dropped the item to the floor.

“See, Astro Red?”, he heard the fake Torao say with his last bits of consciousness. “This is what awaits thee. Enjoy thy last moments of freedom and clarity ere thou art thrown into the prison of thought ‘til the end of eternity.”

Torao drifted away into a world void of fog and void of anything.

Yamato got off the subway at his usual stop. The crowds, the stress, and two people coexisting in one brain was not the best combination. Especially not when one of the two suffered from migraines. It had been bearable until he got on the subway, but now it was starting to hurt.

He did not see Torao hopping off, which was annoying but also understandable. This subway line was still in construction in the Astro Rangers’ world. He walked towards the wagon Torao should’ve been at and didn’t see him.

 _“Tch”_ , Yamato thought and took out his phone. _“Did he get off too early?”_

Torao’s new phone was not receiving any messages. Calls were not connecting either. Odd. Yamato took off his glasses and wiped them with his shirt. He put them back on, but his vision was still foggy.

Suddenly, Yamato’s ring began glowing pink. Just as his brain registered the distress signal, however, his headache got worse. It took all he had to sit on a bench and stay conscious. His phone was buzzing with messages and calls but Yamato had no energy to answer any of them.

The pain subsided together with the pink light. The Alternate Astro Rangers’ group chat was full of texts admiring the glowing rings (it was quite pretty when you didn’t know it was a distress call) and a lot of “Yappi pick up the phone” and “What’s wrong, Midou-san?”.

The group chat was being filled with whatever information Yamato had. Torao was still nowhere to be seen, so they would meet up at the subway station and search from there. 

A very familiar thud made Yamato grip his phone instinctively. There was a phone on the floor, but his was still in his hands. He was alone at the station, so where did this phone come from?

He picked it up and examined it. The screen was cracked at multiple places and the red case almost looked white from all the dust. Wait a minute. Red?

The smiling faces of Red and Black greeted Yamato from the lockscreen. Fuck. It _was_ Red’s phone, but where did it come from? Red wasn’t here, and he couldn’t have magically teleported his phone right next to him, no?

The next subway interrupted Yamato’s train of thought. 

“How are you here so fast?”, Yamato asked.

“Yuppi suddenly wanted to buy raspberry seeds”, Gaku said. “So we were still at the city centre.”

“Why did he… oh, whatever”, Yamato sighed. “Look at this. It just appeared out of thin air, and I’m pretty sure it’s Red’s.”

“How do you know that?”, Gaku asked.

Without answering his question, Yamato simply showed the picture on the phone’s screen to the others.

“Ohh…”, Gaku said.

“My, Midou-san must really like my other self”, Minami chuckled. “So you said it just appeared suddenly?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s odd”, Yuki put a hand to his chin. “But why were you separated in the first place?”

“It was crowded so we entered the subway on our own and decided to meet up here again, but he kinda never left the wagon and then I suddenly find this phone”, Yamato explained.

“But is it his old one or the one we got for him?”, Gaku wondered.

“I’d assume his old one. After all, there was no opportunity to take a picture with myself yet”, Minami added.

“Oh, yeah true”, Gaku nodded. “Have you tried unlocking it?”

“Huh, no, why?”, Yamato was confused.

“Dunno, maybe it gives us a hint as to where he is?”

“Hmm…”

“Let’s try it”, Yuki smiled. “Is it password locked?”

“Uhh, let’s see…”, Yamato unlocked the screen. “It is.”

“Try ‘superhero’.”

“Wrong password.”

“Minami?”

“Wrong password.”

“Dumpster?”

“What!?”, Yamato exclaimed and looked at Yuki, but that one only shrugged. “...no, wrong too.”

“So he tried it either way”, Minami whispered to himself.

“Oh I know!”, Gaku said.

“You better have the correct one or we have to wait 10 minutes before trying again”, Yamato warned him.

“Try ‘Astro Rangers’.”

“...”, Yamato typed silently, and the phone unlocked. “Hah, Torao…”

“Cool”, he grinned in response. “So, any hints?”

“The phone’s got no reception whatsoever”, Yamato stated.

“So we can’t check his browser history”, Yuki sighed.

“...why would you wanna do that?”

“Aren’t you curious to see what Toppi searched for?”

“Yuki-san, that is a violation against Midou-san’s privacy”, Minami sighed. “Nikaidou-san, are there any open apps or tasks running in the background?”

“Ohh, smart”, Gaku said. “Maybe he was in a hurry or something and then dropped it.”

“But he had his new phone”, Yamato countered. “Which actually worked here.”

“...you’re right”, he admitted. “But still.”

“Hah, sure, I’ll check”, he said. He saw that the messenger had been left open and clicked on it. His eyes widened in surprise as he read the message on screen. “Guys…”

“Yes?”, Minami asked. Yamato showed them the message on screen:

_Glwoing rings mean danger-be wear of my dopelgamget. Red_

“So the glowing of the rings was a sign of something dangerous happening…”, Gaku said. “Wait, his doppelganger? Like, squid whisperer Midou?”

“I don’t know, but this means something happened to him, right?”, Yamato asked worriedly.

“I think it is safe to assume that another Midou-san appeared before Astro Red Midou-san, but why did he warn us instead of asking for help?”, Minami asked.

“Hah…”, Yamato sighed. “That’s just Torao for you. Always worried about others first.”

“...I see…”

“We gotta help him! What if he got kidnapped by this evil Torao!?”

“If only we had known more about these rings”, Gaku said as he looked at his blue ring.

“Any ideas?”

“...is there a way to maybe track his ring?”, Minami asked.

“Beats me”, Gaku shrugged. “Nikaidou?”

“How should I know!?”

“Maybe Pink knows.”

“The suspense is killing me”, Yuki said out of nowhere. “This is quite dark for a Christmas story. And not very Christmas-themed, while we’re at it.”

The other three decided to ignore Yuki’s commentary and return to the emergency at hand: how to locate Torao.

 _Ping_.

“Oh, an email notification”, Minami pulled out his phone and checked his emails. “Oh.”

“Oh?”, the others echoed.

“It… is Midou-san.”

“Torao?!”, Yamato was seriously worried sick. That stupid hero, he always had to go and try to save the world on his own.

“This world’s Midou-san… I would assume. Though…”, he scrolled down further. “Ah, no. It is also our Midou-san.”

“They’re the same person?”, Gaku asked. “That can’t be, I tested him, and he didn’t have any magic.”

“No, look”, Minami turned his phone. “It is two Midou-sans.”

On his phone screen was an image of a Torao they didn’t know (judging by the clothes at least), standing next to their Torao. Their Torao was asleep (or unconscious; it was hard to tell from just a selfie) and tied to a chair.

The text of the blogpost was written oddly, in a strange mix of languages.

“’Sup everyone, I know I haven’t posted in a while, and sorry, but there’s no squid update today (シ_ _ )シ

Mine twin brother hath cometh to visit me, and I did doth decide to playeth a dram prank on him. 

He’s a little tied up at the moment, but that’ll fix itself soon! His special cater-cousins art coming to save him rn! (╯✧ ∇ ✧)╯“

“Natsume”, Gaku said. “You’ve been following this blog, right? Has he always written like that?”

Minami tilted his head slightly, in thought. “Not really”, he said then. “It was mostly similar to the first line.”

“Then we got our impostor”, Gaku said.

“Oh my”, Yuki said. “Just like imitation leather I wear to keep up my vegan wardrobe.”

“So the doppelganger Torao is taunting us to come find him because he has Redorao”, Yamato said. He was growing impatient. “But how are we supposed to find him?”

“He has his business’s address in his blog’s description”, Minami said.

“That’s our only chance, huh”, Yamato said. “Phew. Okay Pink, no time to get hysterical. No offense but you guys have zero hero experience, so I’ll take it from here. Pink is closest to red in colour anyway, so I’ll act as our stand-in leader.”

He breathed in and out slowly.

“I need you to transform. I don’t care how we do it, but without weapons we’ll be powerless. If Redorao couldn’t beat squid-Torao even though he used the emergency transformation, three inexperienced people with magic like yours won’t make it either.”

“Let us try on the ride there”, Minami said. “My truck has room in the back.”

Transforming proved to be barely an inconvenience anymore. They didn’t know if it was because of their clothes and accessories, or because Torao’s emergency transformation had awakened something in them (or their rings). They could each pull off their emergency transformations. Luckily, Yamato knew their lines, and his didn’t even include a pyon. Emergencies apparently didn’t require pyons.

They arrived at their destination.

The abandoned factory building they stood before looked like it should’ve been demolished years ago. Most windows had been smashed and the walls were full of more or less artistic graffiti. The only building that was still recognisable as what it had been was the gigantic storehouse off to the border of the site. 

A strange light of a colour that Yamato found hard to describe but remembered all too well shone from the few high windows of the building. 

“This is where he is”, he said. “It looked like this in the other world too… Before this mess happened.

“What’s the plan?”, Gaku asked. “Doesn’t our leader need to give a speech before we go in? I can also take over that pa—”

“Sneaking in would be wisest I reckon”, Minami said.

Yuki nodded. “That way we can find out if the naughty Torao has a greater plan that we need to interrupt.”

“Alright. Let’s go”, Yamato said. “Pyon.”

Damn. No day without a pyon apparently.

They snuck into the storehouse via a backdoor that seemed safe. They walked along the corridor in darkness, the only light being a slight glow from their rings.

“There’s a big room ahead”, Gaku mumbled. “I can feel an undertow.”

He turned out to be right. Even though they had started on ground level, a giant room opened up in front of them and below them. They were standing on a suspended walkway with a view of the entire hall.

The walls were _covered_ in aquariums hosting squids.

Minami seemed to recognise some of the squids, but he kept his mouth shut. From below they could hear laughter. All four of them stepped up and peeked over the edge of the railing.

Their Torao was tied to a chair, as they had seen in the blog post earlier, and a different Torao was pacing in front of him. Redorao was apparently awake again.

“Do we attack him?”, Yuki asked in a whisper. He had been very excited about his antler helmet and was apparently itching to use it.

“Are you mad?”, Yamato replied, similarly hushed. “He hasn’t given a grand speech about his plan yet.”

“…and why would we wait for him to do that, if we could just strike him from behind right now, Nikaidou-san?”, Minami whispered. Gaku nodded.

“That’s not how this works”, Yamato sighed. “Anyway, let’s listen in.”

“Thee daw! Thee did doth bethink thee couldst did beat me, and yet thee wast easily flung out yourself!”, the other Torao seemed impatient for something. His cape fluttered behind him dramatically as he turned.

“Doth thee believeth yond thee hath't did save thy cater-cousins by staying did put? 't is not thee I wanteth - ye art did want by mine pursuers already. Who is't I truly wanteth is yond pest, Nikaidou.”

Yamato gasped at those words. The other Torao was after him? But why?

“He is an error from the time I did jump dimensions once moo and swapped myself with thee. He would giveth me away!”

A security breach. Great. He had been a lot of things, but a security breach was new. Pyon.

“And I am not going to did let yond befall”, the man stopped and pointed toward the tied up Torao dramatically. “Did let 't beest known, years ago I did doth becometh a dimensional criminal - which of course, the other dimension hoppers from mine home world did want to repress. But mine partners and I wast unstoppable! Until yond team of investigators did bewray up. They did doth catch mine partners, and I wast did leave all high-lone. So I did take refuge in this dimension, surrendered the other me (yond squid-loving daw) to mine pursuers, and did take his lodging. And anon they hath't did find me out! After all this time, they hath't did find me!”

“This is not this world’s Midou-san”, Minami whispered. “There is a third world. And a third Midou-san.”

“Naturally, an escape to another dimension is mine next grise. And ye art going to beest mine next scapegoat!”

“And he’s trying to get another Torao jailed in his place”, Gaku mumbled. “Holy shit that jail must suck if he’s trying so hard.”

“But then Nikaidou did hath't to beest transported hither as well. An unfortunate side effect of mine powers”, he smiled haughtily. Yamato knew this kind of stance. A taunt would follow. Not good. Torao loved responding to those. “Stayeth assured, as of coequal but anon I am almost completely sealed. I did doth not needeth much of mine power to did beat thee, ‘Astro Red’...”

“Say”, Torao from the chair said. His voice was weak, but in the large hall that was quiet except for the gentle bubbling of the squid-tanks, it resounded far and wide. “Is that way of speaking part of your persona? Because I’m pretty sure there are errors there. Do you have some kinda translation program to sound cool? Because that sounds like a shitty AI to me.”

“Y-You dare taunt me?! P-Preposterous!”

“Shouldn’t it be ‘ _thee_ dare taunt me’?”, Torao asked.

“I shalt strike thee to make you shut the hell up!”

“Astro Rangers, now!”, Yamato called.

Heroes arrive in the last moment before danger. A well-known fact. 

Yamato jumped down first. Normally it would be Gaku or Torao, but one was captured and the other one was holding a maul for the first time in his life.

An elegant and dramatic turn of cape later, Torao was facing Yamato, and fog started to rise and wrap around his left arm. Yamato’s dropkick was stopped by the fog, so he somersaulted back and landed close to Redorao. His head started to hurt again as soon as the fog appeared, so he faltered and stopped attacking.

Torao stumbled from the force of the kick but seemed otherwise unharmed. “Nikaidou!”, he yelled. “Prepareth for thy demise!”

Torao raised his foggy arm towards the sky and clenched his fist. The fog dispersed from his arm but appeared instead all around him and his body started becoming illusory.

“Oh no, you won’t!”, Gaku yelled as he jumped down and swung his hammer at the translucid figure. 

Torao scowled and the fog gathered around his arm again. Right before Gaku’s attack was parried, a well-timed blast from a certain antler helmet dispersed the fog. Torao’s eyes widened and he was knocked down to the floor. 

The fight was over, or it would have been if they were the real Astro Rangers. Torao stood up and backed away, his left arm limping at his side. Gaku had tried to stop him but lost balance, which also prevented Yamato from doing something about it. A whip was the ideal weapon for this situation, but Minami had freed Redorao from his restraints instead of attacking.

“Thank you”, Red said. His body hurt all over and transforming was probably impossible, but he stood up through sheer willpower and backed away from the fight. 

The other Torao glared at the Astro Rangers but instead of gathering more fog, he paused. Yamato took the opportunity and kicked him on the pit of the stomach. Torao crashed into one of the aquariums and the glass cracked.

“ _cough_ … Yuki, Minami!”, Torao yelled as he gasped for air. “Why are you… _cough_ … thou working with my nemesis?!”

Silence fell for a couple of seconds while laundry-Gaku, ice-Minami, plant-Yuki, Pink-Yamato and Red processed this bit of confusing info.

“...what”, Gaku said.

“...oh. He must mean the Yuki-san and me from the third world? Nikaidou-san is his antagonist, but we are likely his companions”, Minami said.

“I see”, the evil Torao said. Fog was starting to gather again. “Ye… ye art not mine cater-cousins. Nikaidou… Thee wilt payeth.” 

His arm was broken, but Torao grabbed his left hand and took three rings off, one by one, letting them fall to the floor. After the first one, his cape started billowing in the non-existent wind. When the second one fell, it got lost into the sea of fog that was becoming denser and denser. When the third slipped off his finger, his left eye turned into an eyepatch and his mouth twisted into a sinister smile.

Red saw the situation nosediving. Judging by the elaborate eyepatch and the multiple rings and bracelets still adorning his doppelganger’s left hand, this was not his full power. Yamato was drenched in cold sweat yet ready for battle. But Minami, Gaku and Yuki were hesitating. 

He realised, again, that this was their first fight. They were his friends, they were definitely also real Astro Rangers, but this was a Boss fight happening at the First Town. Could he still call himself their leader if he stood back and watched? No. No matter how hurt he was, he was still a hero. 

He was Astro Red.

“Bringing justice upon evil with the slash of a tiger’s claw! I’m Astro Red!”

Torao’s ring flashed, and he transformed.

“Resistance is futile”, the other Torao scoffed. “Wherefore doth thee struggle so?”

His right hand reached for the eyepatch and took it off. The fog started glowing ominously and it seemed to consume everything it touched. The entire building was shaking, the ceiling was about to collapse, and the squids were panicking inside their aquariums. Torao’s left eye was glowing the same indescribable colour as the fog.

“Ahh, yes”, he smiled in bliss. “‘t hath been a while… since I did feel… mine power…”

Redorao clenched his fists and lifted his claws at the ready. “Come on, guys!”, he said, hiding his worries with false bravado. “As long as we Astro Rangers are together, we can win against anything!”

“Red… I’m sorry.” 

Yamato fell to the ground, unconscious.

Before evil Torao had time to gloat and Redorao had time to yell in worry, a sky-blue light appeared in mid-air and quickly expanded to become a circle as wide as the room. 

“Fuck!”, a frown replaced evil Torao’s smile and he scrambled to put his eyepatch back on.

A roomba with a flashing siren on top descended from the blue circle. Torao tried to run, but from the roomba appeared a mechanical arm that grabbed and tasered him. The Astro Rangers were frozen in shock.

As soon as the roomba touched the floor, the blue circle fell, engulfed everyone in the room, and vanished. Only the squids were left behind.

“Ugh, not again”, Red complained as he opened his eyes. He had gone through the same sensations as when he first got transported to the world of weirdly specific magic and—wait, again? He frantically looked around and…

“Minami!”, he exclaimed.

“Torao-san!”, Minami - his Minami - replied and ran towards him. Torao was sitting on the ground and before he was able to stand up, Minami flung himself around his neck. “You are back!”

“I’m… I’m back”, he repeated, still somewhat confused. But he recognized the feeling of the embrace and hugged him back. He had returned to his world, somehow.

“Uhh…”, a Gaku said. “I don’t wanna interrupt your reunion, but…”

“What are we gonna do about this?”, a second Gaku asked.

“Whoops”, a third Gaku added. Wait, a _third_ Gaku?

Torao let go of Minami, stood up and looked around. He found himself in the abandoned factory where he had been separated from the Astro Rangers. Just to make sure, he counted twice, but he didn’t miscount. There were two Minamis, two Yukis, two Yamatos and _three_ Gakus. And his evil self, but that one seemed to be unconscious and arrested by one Gaku and Yamato.

“Uhh…?”, he was visibly confused, but luckily, the third Gaku he didn’t recognize was already approaching him.

“Let me clear up this confusion”, he said and greeted Torao. “My name is Yaotome Gaku and I work for the Dimensional Criminal Investigations Force, DCIF for short. This is my partner Nikaidou and our DCIF roomba, Musashi.”

“Cheers”, DCIF-Yamato said and the roomba booped as well.

“We have already explained the situation to the residents of this world”, he continued.

“He sure did”, Blue-Gaku sighed. “Can’t believe you got thrown into another world with that kaijuu.”

“Though it seems it was not an actual kaijuu, but the doings of…”, Minami glanced at the other Torao. “...him”, he said, unsure as to how to address him.

“Yup”, DCIF-Yamato nodded. “This fellow over here is a wanted criminal in our world. He’s got the power to travel to other worlds. It seems he switched places with the Torao from that other world—”

“Squid whisperer Torao?”, Torao asked.

“The very same”, he nodded again. “And that one ended up in prison instead while, uhh, let’s call him evil Torao for convenience’s sake… Evil Torao was enjoying his new life.”

“But how did you find us in the end?”

“Oh that’s easy”, he grinned. “Musashi can detect large amounts of powerful magic, so he warped over in a jiffy and warped back with you in tow.”

“...I see. But why were the others warped with me too?”

“Meh”, DCIF-Yamato shrugged. “Details.”

“Fascinating, he’s like our Yappi”, Yuki - Astro White - said.

“Right, what happened to Nikaidou?”, Blue asked.

“Nikaidou from this and that world fused together due to certain circumstances and ended up in that world as well”, DCIF-Gaku explained.

“Certain circumstances? How vague”, laundry-Gaku raised an eyebrow.

“Sorry, we’re not allowed to say more. Decision from the higher-ups.”

“I don’t mean to interrupt you”, plant-Yuki interrupted them. “But it seems fusion-Yappi isn’t doing all too well.”

Only then they realized that not-DCIF-Yamato was lying on the floor, his hands held to his head in pain.

“Oh shit, he should probably get treated”, DCIF-Yamato said. He opened the zip of his fanny pack and reached inside - way deeper than it should’ve physically been possible to - and took out something akin to a laser gun.

He pointed it at his other self and shot once. In a flash of green and pink lighting, the Yamato on the ground seemed to clone himself and suddenly two Yamatos were lying on the ground, both equally tired-looking.

“Ugh, I wanna die”, Pink moaned.

“Same”, dinosaur-Yamato joined him in his lamenting.

“Whoa, cool!”, Torao exclaimed and stared at the gun. “Do you have more awesome gadgets in there?”

“Heh”, DCIF-Yamato smiled as he put the gun away. “Sure we do.”

“I must say…”, Blue crossed his arms. “I sure am handsome no matter the world, right?”

“Wow”, DCIF-Yamato rolled his eyes.

“Except you”, he pointed at DCIF-Gaku. “Why are you wearing that heinous thing?”, he said as he pointed at the fanny pack around the other’s waist.

“Excuse you!”, the not-wanting-to-die-Yamato adjusted his glasses. “This is the DCIF’s official Dimensional Fanny Pack.”

“But couldn’t it have been something cooler?”

“Like what?”

“I dunno, like…”, he started thinking and seemed to have gotten an idea. “A dimensional—”

“Soba bowl!”, all three Gakus said at the same time.

“Hah...”, all three Yamatos sighed simultaneously.

“I don’t mean to interrupt you”, White interrupted them. “But I’m starting to get a little peckish.”

“I agree”, plant-Yuki nodded. “Would it be too much to ask for if we came to a close soon?”

“Yes,” the other Yuki nodded as well. “Also all these different names are starting to confuse me.”

“They’re probably right”, DCIF-Yamato said. “Gaku, let’s get out of here.”

“Understood”, he nodded in response. “We’ll have Musashi warp you four back to your world.”

“Thanks”, laundry-Gaku said.

“So…”, Torao started talking. “I guess this is good-bye?”

“You’re not gonna start a cheesy heartfelt speech now, are you?”, dinosaur-Yamato had gotten up by now.

“Wh-what?”, Torao totally had planned that. “Of course… not.”

“Fufu, I am glad you got back safely, Midou-san”, ice-Minami smiled. “And it seems you are in good hands here.”

“Fufu, I shall make sure of it”, Black smiled as well.

“I might contact our Midou-san once he is back in our world. After all, it seems the two of us are compatible.”

“My, then I wish you the best.”

“Fufu, thank you very much”, he chuckled.

“Fufu, you are very welcome”, he chuckled.

“...I don’t know how to feel about this…”, Torao whispered to Blue-Gaku, but that one only shrugged.

“Are you ready?”, DCIF-Yamato asked as he pushed some buttons on Musashi.

“Uhm…”, Torao scratched the back of his head. “Thanks for everything. Really.”

“No problem man”, laundry-Gaku grinned.

“Don’t forget to water your plants enough”, plant-Yuki closed his eyes and nodded happily.

“It was a pleasure to meet you, Midou-san”, ice-Minami smiled.

“Well, my time with you was filled with unmeasurable headache pain but I guess it was fun”, dinosaur-Yamato laughed.

“Yeah”, Torao laughed too. “If we ever hop across worlds and meet, let’s hang out.”

The others nodded in agreement.

“See ya!”, he said, and DCIF-Yamato took that as the signal and activated Musashi’s warp. The DCIF roomba’s blue light circled around the four from the magic world, the two DCIF investiators and the restrained criminal and they quickly warped out of this world.

Torao stared at the now empty space for a little while before his friends approached him and surrounded him.

“You good?”, Gaku asked.

“Yeah…”, Torao nodded. “It was quite the adventure I gotta say.”

“My, wanna meet up at my house and talk about it?”, Yuki suggested. “I’ve recently purchased a book with mandala, and I’ve been wanting to colour them in.”

“...I just…”, Torao thought about whether to say anything but decided not to. “I mean, sure. Why not?”

“Fufu, I am rather curious to hear about your adventures in the other world”, Minami chuckled as he took Torao’s hand.

“It was incredible!”, Torao sounded excited as he gestured with his other hand. The Astro Rangers started walking towards the building’s exit while listening to their leader’s story.

“Imagine this…”, he said. “They’ve got dead kaijuu bone exhibitions!”

Far, far away, in a dimension far beyond the understanding of the Astro Rangers, two men were pushing a third. They were accompanied by a small intelligent machine.

“Doth not treat me like a sheep getting eft for slaughter. Doth thee not knoweth who is’t I am!?”

“Oh, we know Midou”, Gaku from the DCIF said. “What’s waiting for you is probably worse for you than slaughter.”

“Can’t wait for your shrieks”, Yamato said. “Now move.”

“What is yond did suppose to cullionly?”

“You’re getting the same cell as your other self, whom we acquitted. Well, he was wrongfully arrested in the first place, because of you”, Yamato said. “He was sent back to his original world, so his cell is vacant now.”

“He did like the beard he grew in the time spent here though”, Gaku said. “What did he say the shape was like? A… quip?”

“Not sure, partner”, Yamato said. “But I’m sure Midou here will be delighted when he sees the cell. Your other self was quite the artist, you know. Others draw a line for every day spent here. He drew—”

“We’re here”, Gaku interrupted him. “See for yourself.”

Torao’s eyes grew wide as he looked. Everything, walls, floor, ceiling, even the bed and toilet, the chair and the table, everything inside that cell was covered in…

“Bye Midou”, Yamato said as he locked the special power-sealing door behind Torao with a thud. 

“Have fun”, Gaku added.

“Nay thee can't doth this to me. Don't leaveth, don't leaveth me in this cell! This is torture! I've already did hath't enough squids for a lifetime!” 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> Try guessing which words were generated! It might be obvious at times, at others not so much.
> 
> If you want to scream at us about anything you can do so on either of our twitter accounts ([Ayumu](https://twitter.com/396Ayumu), [Kai](https://twitter.com/eins_Kai), [Shion](https://twitter.com/ShionsTear)).
> 
> Have a nice day!
> 
> \- Ayumu, Kai and Shion


End file.
